Difference Between Ulcer and Gastritis

People sometimes out of nowhere get a handful of illnesses. These people commonly are usually clueless as to how they had the disease or what contributed to the disease unless they make an effort to visit the doctor. This is a must for everyone. As humans, we should not experiment with taking medicines which are not prescribed by the doctor.

Two gastrointestinal diseases that we usually don’t know how they came about are ulcers and gastritis. Both diseases involve the stomach, a hollow organ, that digests the food that we eat by producing gastric juices to dissolve the food.

Ulcers and gastritis are considerably different from each other. Gastritis is a disease of the stomach in which there is an inflammation. There is inflammation because there is too much secretion of gastric juices. Ulcers, on the other hand, is a scarring of the surface of an organ or even the skin. In this article, an ulcer is the scarring of the surface of the stomach or any surface of the gastrointestinal tract. This happens because too much gastric juices have burned the surface of the stomach.

Gastritis can be a cause of H.pylori, a bacteria, that can thrive in the stomach. This bacteria when it multiplies into the millions will definitely cause infection. Another cause of gastritis is by taking NSAIDS or pain relievers as well as aspirin. These drugs reduce the capacity of prostaglandin to protect the stomach from too much acidic reaction.

Ulcers or peptic ulcers or peptic ulcer disease, PUD, is also a gastrointestinal disease. It is the erosion of the mucosal layer of the stomach or gastrointestinal tract. Ulceration is defined as erosions greater than half a centimeter. Just like gastritis, an ulcer can be caused by the H. pylori bacteria, pain reliever drugs such NSAIDS, and aspirin. One-third of all ulcers is caused by the H.pylori bacteria. The other cause of ulcers is stress particularly those who have a Type A personality.

Ulcer’s signs and symptoms include copious vomiting, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, vomiting of blood, reddish and malodorous feces. Gastritis, on the other hand, also shows vomiting, belching, bloating, and weight loss that is unexplainable among patients. But the vomit’s color depends on the extent of the damage unlike in ulcers which is bloody. Both conditions are treatable with medications and antibiotics.

Summary:

1.Gastritis is the inflammation of the stomach while an ulcer is the erosion of the surface of the stomach or even the gastrointestinal tract.
2.Ulcers and gastritis can be mainly caused by bacteria, but ulcers can be caused by stress.
3.An ulcer presents vomiting with bright red contents while in gastritis, the color of the vomit depends on the severity of the condition.

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Written by : joshua.
and updated on May 22, 2011

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